“I have an adaptive personality,” says Mr Seijun Kato, speaking over a video call from his apartment in Tokyo. “I’m happy in any environment.” The 29-year-old musician and guitarist for the band Mono No Aware is talking about how his approach to getting dressed has been influenced by his surroundings. There’d be nothing particularly remarkable about that, except for the fact that Kato has some pretty extreme experiences when it comes to his “surroundings”.

Kato was born and grew up on Hachijojima, a tiny volcanic island with a population of just 7,000 people that sits 180 miles south off the coast of Tokyo. Previously marketed by the Japanese government as “the Hawaii of Japan” in an effort to boost its tourism credentials, the island is just eight miles across with a relatively untouched natural environment that Kato describes as “wild”. A host of flora and fauna including bioluminescent mushrooms are native to the island, and humpback whales are regularly spotted just off the coast. His father is a diver and author, and his mother is a school nurse.

“Obviously it’s totally different to Tokyo,” Kato says. “Growing up, there was a cinema, a CD shop, an electronics shop, and everything closed at 8.00pm.”

As a teen, he’d hang out with friends on the bench in front of the local supermarket, or sit and watch the stars in the park. Still, Kato grew up just as the internet began to take over, and felt the call of the big city. “Hachijojima is a super small island, but my childhood was surprisingly fun there,” he smiles.

Kato upped sticks to the mainland to go to university in Gunma Prefecture and, after graduating, moved to Tokyo to become a musician. His band, Mono No Aware, is named after a Japanese phrase which translates to “the pathos of things”, which goes some way to describing the brand’s serious and sensitive approach to making music.

With Kato on guitar alongside three bandmates on the bass, drums and vocals, Mono No Aware’s music is wholesome, dreamy indie rock that twangs with heartfelt riffs alongside lyrics about existence, love and the weather. Kato started the band nine years ago with childhood friend and vocalist Mr Shuki Tamaki, with whom he also works on a second musical project called MIZ, a more intimate and acoustic counterpart.

A fan of the idiosyncratic American film director Mr Jim Jarmusch, and an avid reader of music history, Kato’s influences in both his style and his music are broad. “I like jazz music a lot, especially the flow from around 1950 to 1980,” he says. “It’s really interesting how it was influenced by the war and the genre of changed. I like that transition.”

There’s perhaps an element of improv to Kato’s fashion-sense, too. After not taking much interest in menswear growing up on the island, he developed his personal style when he moved to Tokyo by experimenting. “I used to wear mostly second-hand stuff, and I’d often go to the vintage shops in Ura-Harajuku or on Tonchan-Dori,” he says. “But as I got older and more interested [in fashion], I began mixing the vintage pieces with new clothing from young designers and started looking for designers overseas who were creating something different.” He cites the American brand BODE as one of his favourites: “It has this current feeling and an old-fashioned feeling both at the same time, which I guess comes from its use of vintage fabrics and patterns. I like that balance.”

As part of MR PORTER’s How I Wear It series, we asked Kato to give us an authentic insight into how he chooses his clothes. From the natty styling tip of layering a printed shirt over a hoodie, to the best way to dress when cycling through the streets of Shibuya, Kato takes us on a sartorial trip across Tokyo, showcasing some of his favourite looks along the way.

“I really like Acne Studios denim, and usually wear this kind of wide silhouette when it comes to jeans. I’m quite particular with how thick or thin the denim is though, and I don’t want it to flare out too much. But the balance on these is great, and I love the colour.”

“I wear shorts a lot in the summer in Tokyo – I like wearing them with a long-sleeved tee under a shirt, especially when they’ve got an interesting print. And then I think adding a small bit of colour with the socks helps bring it all together.”

“I wouldn’t usually think to wear a knitted vest like this over bare skin, but maybe I’m establishing a new sense of self. I’m really into the ERL pants, too, because of the patchwork and embroidery. I don’t actually wear glasses normally, but these Bottega lenses make the outfit look good – the frames aren’t too big either, which is important.”

“I like to wear a short-sleeved shirt over a hoodie – for me, it’s a style that just looks really natural, so this the kind of look I would wear on a regular day. There are patchwork butterflies on the knees of the pants, which are cool, and then the shoes are like an elegant pair of shearling slippers.”

“I cycle around Tokyo a lot, so in the summer I’ll wear shorts to avoid getting my trousers dirty. Wearing them with this jacket from Lemaire is smarter than what I’d usually do, but I love how it looks, and the fabric is really light and comfortable. Mixing the casual shorts with a high-end jacket like this I think works so well.”

“While I mostly wear jeans, I really like the balance and high-end feeling that these Lemaire pants give off. They really change the impression of everything and make the whole look feel impactful. I have a lot of vintage shirts similar to this one from Mr P., too, and wearing it with the trousers looks super clean.”

“When I play the [usually electric] guitar on stage, I have to be careful what I wear. Like I don’t usually wear knitwear because it’ll rub and get damaged. But if I’m just jamming with the acoustic guitar, it’s not moving as much, so I can wear something like this. And then with the pants from Stüssy, I’d wear these for cycling around the city. I like the balance of the textures of the shell and the knitwear.”